Biography
Don Conoscenti launched his professional path in rock & roll before receiving recognition for his jazz guitar work, yet his reputation rests primarily on energetic acoustic folk shows distinguished by inventive applications of multiple and partial capos together with command of an unusually broad instrumental palette that encompasses six- and 12-string guitar, steel guitar, piano, drums, percussion, flute, recorder, didgeridoo, mandolin, banjo, and harmonica.
Raised in the Chicago region, he departed at seventeen and embarked on wide-ranging journeys across the United States, South America, Jamaica, and Japan. While residing in Vermont and employed at the original Ben and Jerry's ice cream shop, he assembled his initial rock ensemble; additional jazz and rock outfits followed without notable success. Relocating to Atlanta placed him amid the lively Decatur music community, where he established himself as a folksinger, and that momentum carried forward after subsequent moves to Oklahoma and then Colorado. The terrain of the American West remains a central inspiration for his songwriting, as does the situation of the American Indian.
His earliest releases, Carved in Stone and Beneath Your Moon, later fell out of print. Over time he developed significant connections within the music world and performed alongside or in support of David Wilcox, Shawn Mullins, Darryl Purpose, and the Indigo Girls. Several of his recordings—Boxes of Bones (1996), My Brilliant Masterpiece (1997), and One for the Road (1998)—include contributions from other established musicians. Boston folk hero Ellis Paul ranks among his closest associates; the pair toured jointly to support Conoscenti's 1999 solo acoustic album Mysterious Light, and two years afterward Paul supplied prominent vocal parts on the more elaborately produced Paradox of Grace.
Raised in the Chicago region, he departed at seventeen and embarked on wide-ranging journeys across the United States, South America, Jamaica, and Japan. While residing in Vermont and employed at the original Ben and Jerry's ice cream shop, he assembled his initial rock ensemble; additional jazz and rock outfits followed without notable success. Relocating to Atlanta placed him amid the lively Decatur music community, where he established himself as a folksinger, and that momentum carried forward after subsequent moves to Oklahoma and then Colorado. The terrain of the American West remains a central inspiration for his songwriting, as does the situation of the American Indian.
His earliest releases, Carved in Stone and Beneath Your Moon, later fell out of print. Over time he developed significant connections within the music world and performed alongside or in support of David Wilcox, Shawn Mullins, Darryl Purpose, and the Indigo Girls. Several of his recordings—Boxes of Bones (1996), My Brilliant Masterpiece (1997), and One for the Road (1998)—include contributions from other established musicians. Boston folk hero Ellis Paul ranks among his closest associates; the pair toured jointly to support Conoscenti's 1999 solo acoustic album Mysterious Light, and two years afterward Paul supplied prominent vocal parts on the more elaborately produced Paradox of Grace.
Singles